I have had a Timberline wood insert for 8 years and it just doesn't put out the heat I need. The coal/wood stove company that installed it really pushed it, and I am disappointed. I live in a 4300 square foot colonial, where the bottom floor is all open. The heat then travels up the stairs and heats the upstairs, but with the Timberline only until the temperature hits the mid twenties. I live in the Catskills and it gets much colder than that even without the wind.

I want to replace it with a used Hyfire that is for sale. But my fireplace is only about 40 inches high. I understand these are back vented. Can I put a plate with a hole in it over the fireplace opening and hook it into my liner?

Is there anything else I should be aware of? I have never owned a coal stove before. It seems that it is only 400 lbs plus 200 of coal, so my floor should hold it. The main beam of the house plus vertical 2x4 studs are under it.

Can I lay it down for transport? I have a Suburban and the back is 36" high. The stove (at least the Hyfire II) is listed at 46" tall.

Remove grate covers, ash pan, top, hopper (coupla bolts) and doors and lay it on it's side. Careful of the motors and the business end on the back side. Get that puppy home and the board will help you get set up. They really kick out the heat you will be thrilled. Size/condition/composition of liner.height of chimney and is it clean? Photos as stated helps us help you, height. Does it have a coaltrol (thermostat)? Hyfire I or II. WOOT... fun days ahead of you. Welcome to the board and easy street. Oh, and as one board member Freetown Fred would say " We promise not to steal you" where are you located?

coalnewbie wrote:Size/condition/composition of liner.height of chimney and is it clean? Photos as stated helps us help you, height. Does it have a coaltrol (thermostat)? Hyfire I or II. ... where are you located?

I'm in the Catskills near Monticello, NY. I'm searching for the installation receipt. I hope to find it tonight so I can read off the length and diameter of the liner. I know it's stainless, but I don't remember if we ended up with six or eight inch diameter. It should be between 18 and 24 feet long.

It has coaltrol and two 90K burners. I don't know what model that makes it.

Lightning wrote:That's a huge amount of space to heat with an insert. Is that your only heating appliance?

No, I have an oil furnace in the basement for the baseboard heat. I was home most of one winter and kept feeding the insert with wood, and we used about 10% of the oil we used without the insert. But realistically, I needed to keep it full of wood and load it every few hours. I would like something that I won't overfire and won't take all my time and sleep from me.

My idea is that a stoker like this only needs to be attended to maybe once a day. I also won't need to keep relighting it, like I need to do with the Timberline whenever I get home from work, and stay cold for a few hours until the house starts to warm up. Also, I'd like to get away from buying a catalytic combustor every couple of years. And not having all that firewood on the porch would set my mind at ease regarding carpenter ants and other stuff that live in wood. And the best part is that once it gets going, the fact that I can keep it going continuously will keep the house warm.

I've got two staircases between the levels, one near the fireplace and another on the other side of the house. When I kept the insert going, the heat would travel up the near staircase and the cold air would come down the far staircase. There would be a breeze for about two days, and then the speed of the breeze would slow down. Putting out more heat and going continuously should really help here.

I'd purposely turn up some thermostats in a few outer rooms so the pipes don't freeze. But raising the heat from seventy that the stoker might put out to 75 with oil in a few rooms shouldn't break the bank. I would use the oil furnace for the backup and keep it on.

You might consider a coal boiler to run in series with your oil boiler. Then you could keep the wood burner and fire it up at will. Just suggesting other options. Many here have an arrangement like this.

Lightning wrote:You might consider a coal boiler to run in series with your oil boiler. Then you could keep the wood burner and fire it up at will. Just suggesting other options. Many here have an arrangement like this.

Thanks. I thought of it, but getting the coal down to the basement and the bringing up the ash and clinkers would be too difficult in my house. Plus the stove seems a less expensive option. And I like being able to get near a hot stove when I finish shoveling snow or trapping.

You got a hyfire2 my friend This particular beauty is as close to full blown furnace for your living room as you can get! Its expensive as hell because it comes with heat exchanger tubes built in (so its not like a fireplace insert). I believe they changed out the blowers to quieter ones at some point so maybe inquire to Dave about that? The back vent is mandatory on this because of its height (it would be a direct connect to a 6 inch or a reducer will be used which I think would be fine either way... but Dave will tell you his thoughts on that). The hopper and ashpan are about as large as your ever going to see in a living room model (order a second ashpan asap from Dave). as long as you can move the air from the living room "up stairs & out around the house this thing will heat like nobodys business! This stove will need to sit completely outside your fireplace (your hearth needs to be extended some), but the flu exit should be well within your height required. You can put up a block the fireplace opening with a piece of durarock and paint it black and cut a hole for the flu, or you make a blocker/damper from durarock/sheetmetal up in the chimney area (most do this out of two pieces so as to fit it around the flu pipe easy).

Dave is a member here named "Flyer5" who owns Leisure Line stove co. (you can always PM him any questions you may have or even call them if you wish), Very good folks and always willing to help anyone with questions. Here comes my question... how much did you pay for it?

Last edited by dcrane on Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dcrane wrote:You got a hyfire2 my friend This particular beauty is as close to full blown furnace for your living room as you can get! Its expensive as hell because it comes with heat exchanger tubes built in (so its not like a fireplace insert). I believe they changed out the blowers to quieter ones at some point so maybe inquire to Dave about that? The back vent is mandatory on this because of its height (it would be a direct connect to a 6 inch or a reducer will be used which I think would be fine either way... but Dave will tell you his thoughts on that). The hopper and ashpan are about as large as your ever going to see in a living room model (order a second ashpan asap from Dave). as long as you can move the air from the living room "up stairs & out around the house this thing will heat like nobodys business! This stove will need to sit completely outside your fireplace (your hearth needs to be extended some), but the flu exit should be well within your height required. You can put up a block the fireplace opening with a piece of durarock and paint it black and cut a hole for the flu, or you make a blocker/damper from durarock/sheetmetal up in the chimney area (most do this out of two pieces so as to fit it around the flu pipe easy).

Here comes my question... how much did you pay for it?

Thanks. I don't have it yet. I plan to pick it up on tomorrow. I wanted to know if it was feasible to use this in front of a fireplace before getting it.

Oh ok. Well I can tell you you will love coal. Hand feds get 12 hour burn times or more between servicing. It's normal to only lite a coal fire just a few times during the year since them going out doesn't happen very often. Some only lite once! You shouldn't have any trouble baking in the radiant heat either

dcrane wrote:You got a hyfire2 my friend This particular beauty is as close to full blown furnace for your living room as you can get! Its expensive as hell because it comes with heat exchanger tubes built in (so its not like a fireplace insert). I believe they changed out the blowers to quieter ones at some point so maybe inquire to Dave about that? The back vent is mandatory on this because of its height (it would be a direct connect to a 6 inch or a reducer will be used which I think would be fine either way... but Dave will tell you his thoughts on that). The hopper and ashpan are about as large as your ever going to see in a living room model (order a second ashpan asap from Dave). as long as you can move the air from the living room "up stairs & out around the house this thing will heat like nobodys business! This stove will need to sit completely outside your fireplace (your hearth needs to be extended some), but the flu exit should be well within your height required. You can put up a block the fireplace opening with a piece of durarock and paint it black and cut a hole for the flu, or you make a blocker/damper from durarock/sheetmetal up in the chimney area (most do this out of two pieces so as to fit it around the flu pipe easy).

Here comes my question... how much did you pay for it?

Thanks. I don't have it yet. I plan to pick it up on tomorrow. I wanted to know if it was feasible to use this in front of a fireplace before getting it.

I will PM dave to help with this question, most people would use this pipe into their hot air ducts but I don't see any reason why you could not use it as a stand alone stove (provided it fit on your hearth with proper clearances to combustibles), in terms of your chimney/flu... if you have a stainless liner in it or clay liner for that matter its the same thing your oil boiler gets vented through (most of us just don't like looking a big ole Buderus sitting in our living room )

I found the paperwork. What I have now is a Winterwarm large insert by Vermont Castings. It requires an eight inch oval flue collar, so I guess that's what I have. The paperwork says that I have a 13" x 13" flue, and it says I have 21 feet of stainless liner installed eight years ago.

Does anyone know how high off the ground the back vent is for the Hyfire? I can't seem to find that information. I just want to make sure that I don't lug it home and not be able to vent it into the fireplace opening.